Spouse of a EEA National with permanent residence

[joseph007]

Hi,

I'm a non-eea national and have been married for a year, I applied for a Residence Card as a family member of an eea national and this was approved.

My wife has acquired permanent residence recently, can I now switch to UK rules and apply for further leave to remain as a spouse of a settled person, as this will to shorten my route to citizenship.

Thanks for your help

[Plum70]

To do this you would need to leave the UK and apply for a 27-month UK spouse visa from your country of residence. You are only able to switch in-country if you were initially granted entry clearance/leave to remain under the UK immigration rules which is not the case here.

My advice? Stick with the EU route. In four years you will acquire PR and one year after you may naturalise as British (and time scampers by quicker than you may think!). The UK route is very expensive and vulnerable to unpredictable changes in law. The EU route on the other hand is free and PR is guaranteed after 5 years of lawful residence in a member state.